Halloween + (Spoooky) Coconut Oil Chocolate Recipe

We returned from our anniversary trip to Thailand just in time for Halloween. Halloween isn’t hugely celebrated in Korea, if at all (though it seemed pretty popular when we visited Japan?). What celebrations were to be had occurred in the busy downtown club/bar area where all the expats hang out. There were some expat events like trunk or treat and various haunted houses, but they seemed more kid-oriented, and well, our furry ‘kids’ wouldn’t really enjoy all the commotion.

Instead Sly made an awesome chicken pot pie/casserole that we stuffed ourselves with all day. We found some Halloween items already on clearance the day before so I decorated the house with our new ghost lights and made coconut almond chocolates using my new silicone Halloween ice? tray.

Our day/night was spent barreling through my Halloween movie list. We didn’t get to watch everything on my list, but the movies we did watch were really good (our favorites were Babadoook, It Follows and The Visitors). At some point we rummaged through our bin of random discarded costumes of Halloweens’ past, pieced together weird outfits, grabbed the kitties — who already suffered through their photo shoot earlier in the day — and took some photos. Nothing like last year’s costumes, but then, what is really?

I missed the trick or treaters this year. I kept thinking that maybe we’d get a few knocks on our door, but we didn’t. In years’ past we have been *those people* that gave out healthy snacks like pistachios and Clif bars, but this year we went straight for the Swedish fish and Sour Patch Kids. We had an entire bag of candy just waiting for some poor kid(s) to ring the doorbell but who are we kidding. We knew it wasn’t likely any kids would come. We ate that whole damn bag of candy ourselves. And I woke up with a stomach ache the next day. It will probably be another year before I eat candy again.

RECIPE // COCONUT OIL ALMOND CHOCOLATES

Ingredients: 1/2 cup coconut oil 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 cup honey or agave or maple syrup Liquid stevia (optional) 1/4 tsp sea salt Approximately 1/4 cup of almonds (or whatever you like) Couple teaspoons of unsweetened shredded coconut Directions: + If you’re using almonds, chop them up so that they are pretty fine and then roast them in the oven until they are brownish. Remove and set aside. + Combine the coconut oil, cocoa powder, and honey/agave/maple syrup into a pan and melt it over medium low heat. The goal is to melt the cocoa and coconut oil so that it mixes together. After adding the honey/agave/maple syrup taste the mixture.  I added agave and found the chocolate to be too bitter for my liking so I ended up adding a few drops of liquid stevia to sweeten it up.  + Once it looks all mixed up, pour into a silicone candy mold or into a parchment paper lined tray (this will make more of a chocolate bark). +Add your chopped roasted almonds and sprinkle coconut (you can add whatever you like in your chocolate at this point — candied ginger, orange zest, etc) until you have the chocolate just the way you want it. Put the trays in the freezer and chill for about 30 minutes. + What you don’t eat in one sitting, keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge. These need to be kept cold.